The hotly-anticipated Chinese premiere of 50 Shades of Grey was set for this Friday, but has been unceremoniously cancelled after China's censors realized that the nation could never be exposed to such "racy" content.
The movie was set to stream on iqiyi.com and letv.com, both of which saw a surge in membership sign-ups after announcing that they would have streaming rights to the S&M blockbuster - and which now have to issue apologies and compensation following the flick's censorship.
Ever precise, the streaming sites have posted notices saying that the film was taken down "For special reasons."
The Global Times agrees with the government's decision (surprise!) and notes that SAPPRFT (the consonant clusterf*ck that is the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television) has been "tightening its examination of imported TV dramas and movies" since last year.
TorrentFreak, a website that follows online video piracy (often from a pro-piracy perspective) notes that a censored version of 50 Shades has been spotted floating around QQ.com. The QQ version is high-resolution, sports Chinese subs and is only missing one thing: all of the sex. It's "basically a PG-13 version," according to some commenters.
In the meantime, you can always buy the Chinese-language paperback. That should fill you in on all of the juicy parts cut out of the "PG-13 version."
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